Stop by the Saginaw County Democratic Party Office and meet Abdul El-Sayed, Democratic candidate for governor. Abdul will speak about his candidacy and answer questions from the crowd. This event is free and open to the public, hope to see you there!

*SCDP has not endorsed any candidate for governor, this event is informational and does not imply an endorsement on their behalf.

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He served as the Executive Director of the Detroit Health Department and Health Officer for the City of Detroit from 2015-2017. Appointed at 30 years old, he was the youngest health commissioner in a major US City. Previously, he was Assistant Professor in the Department of Epidemiology at Columbia University. He is an internationally recognized public health expert, and the author of over 100 scholarly articles, abstracts, and book chapters on public health policy, social epidemiology, and health disparities.[2] His essays on public health policy have also been published in The New York Times,[3] CNN,[4] The Hill,[5] The Huffington Post,[6] The Detroit News,[7] and the Detroit Free Press.[8] On February 9, 2017, the Detroit News reported that El-Sayed will resign his position as health director to run for governor of Michigan in the 2018 Democratic Party primary.[9]
Early life Edit
El-Sayed was born in metro-Detroit to parents who immigrated to the United States from Egypt.[10]
He grew up in the Detroit area with his father, Mohamed El-Sayed, and stepmother, Jacqueline El-Sayed, a native of Gratiot County, Michigan. Both are engineers. His father grew up in Alexandria, Egypt and immigrated to the United States to study engineering at Wayne State University.[11] His mother, Fatten Elkomy, is a nurse practitioner in Missouri.
El-Sayed graduated in 2003 from Bloomfield Hills Andover High School, where he was a three-sport athlete – football, wrestling, and lacrosse – becoming a captain for each team sport in which he participated.[11]
Education Edit
El-Sayed attended the University of Michigan, where he majored in Biology and Political Science, and played for the University’s men’s lacrosse team.[12] He won the William Jennings Bryan Prize for Political Science, graduated with Highest Distinction, and delivered the student commencement speech in 2007.[13] As a student at University of Michigan, El-Sayed lived with his grandparents, Jan and Judy Johnson, at their house in Whitmore Lake, Washtenaw County, Michigan.
He was awarded a full-tuition Dean’s scholarship to attend the University of Michigan Medical School, where he completed his first two years of medical school.[14] There, he led a student medical mission to Peru and founded a student organization which raised money and coordinated community service for a local free clinic.[15] He was offered the Marshall Scholarship and awarded the Rhodes Scholarship in 2009 as a second year medical student.[15] He attended Oriel College, Oxford as a Rhodes Scholar in 2009,[16] where he completed a Doctor of Philosophy in Public Health in under two years in 2011.[17] While at Oxford, he earned a full blue as captain of Oxford’s men’s lacrosse team.[18] He completed his MD at Columbia University's College of Physicians & Surgeons in 2014 on a Soros Fellowship for New Americans[19] and Medical Scientist Training Program fellow funded through the National Institutes of Health.[20]
Health career Edit
Public Health Professor Edit
In 2014, he joined the faculty at Columbia’s Mailman School of Public Health as Assistant Professor in the Department of Epidemiology. He served as director of Columbia’s Systems Science Program and Global Research Analytics for Population Health.[8] As a researcher, he has authored over 100 scientific publications, including articles, commentaries, book chapters, and abstracts, about health disparities, birth outcomes, and obesity. His research has been cited over 700 times.[2] He is the recipient of several research awards, including being named one of the Carnegie Council’s Policy Innovators.[21] He created and taught the Mailman School’s first ever course on systems science and population health. He co-edited a textbook on the topic with Sandro Galea published in 2017 by Oxford University Press entitled "Systems Science and Population Health".[22]
Health Commissioner of Detroit Edit
In August, 2015, Mayor Mike Duggan appointed El-Sayed as Health Officer and Executive Director of the Detroit Health Department, making him, at 30 years old, the youngest health commissioner in a major US city. In his role, he was charged with rebuilding the Detroit Health Department after it was privatized during the City of Detroit’s municipal bankruptcy in 2012.[8] On his first day on the job, El-Sayed arrived to a small office space in the back of Detroit's parking department overseeing only five employees.[11] In his first year as Director, El-Sayed led efforts to oppose increases in sulfur dioxide emissions by Marathon Petroleum’s Southwest Refinery, which resulted in reductions in overall emissions.[7] He also furthered efforts to reduce toxic emissions from Detroit area companies and created programs that dealt with those who suffered with asthma.[23] He also led efforts to test Detroit schools for lead in the wake of Flint’s Water crisis,[24] and provide free glasses to children in Detroit city schools.[23] He also led a transformation at the City’s troubled Animal Control department.[25][26]
In view of his leadership on lead poisoning reduction, he was appointed to the governor’s statewide Childhood Lead Elimination Board.[23] He also serves on the State of Michigan's Public health Advisory Commission,[24] and the Advisory Committee to the US Secretary of Health & Human Services for Healthy People 2030.[25]
He was named one of Crain's Detroit's "40 under 40",[26] and "Public Official of the Year" in 2016 by the Michigan League of Conservation Voters.[27] In 2017, the University of Michigan awarded him a Bicentennial Alumni Award, awarded to 20 alumni "whose achievements carry on Michigan’s traditions of intellectual creativity and academic endeavor, of civic engagement, and of national and international service."[28]
Political ambitions Edit
Gubernatorial candidacy Edit
For more details on this topic, see Michigan gubernatorial election, 2018.
On February 9, 2017, the Detroit News reported that El-Sayed would resign his position as health director to run for governor of Michigan in the 2018 Democratic Party primary.[9] He officially announced his candidacy for Michigan governor on February 25, 2017.[11] El-Sayed was inspired to run for governor following the Flint water crisis, stating "I watched as Governor Snyder and his team of accountants were cutting costs and cutting corners. Their inattention to communities ultimately poisoned thousands of children - and those children were the very ones that I was serving at the helm of the health department. ... And that's something I didn't believe in. I believe in government as something we do in this country for the people and by the people".[29]
El-Sayed pledged not to accept any campaign donations from corporations, and has raised over $1,600,000.00 from individual donations.[30]